Child rights groups meet Delhi legislators

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) Two child rights organisations Friday held discussions with Delhi legislators over allocation and utilisation of funds for child welfare in the state budget.

Officials from HAQ: Centre for Child Rights and Child Rights and You (CRY) expressed concern over the slashing of the funds from 19 percent to 17 percent due to the government’s inability to fully utilise the money.

CRY director Vijayalakshmi laid out a status report about children in the capital.

“Children aged less than 15 constitute as much as 47 percent of the capital’s urban poor,” she said.

“Delhi has a literacy rate of 86 percent. Ironically, the same percentage of urban poor are illiterate,” she said.

Her presentation also highlighted the problems faced by the poor while sending children to school, such as lack of birth records, despite the Right to Education (RTE) Act doing away with any such requirement for admissions.

Representatives of several other NGOs, including Badhte Kadam working for child rights, took part in the discussions and said the government had failed to utilise the funds allocated in the budget for child welfare.

The issue of child trafficking and abduction was also discussed.

According to Reena Bannerjee of Alliance for People’s Rights, 14 children went missing in the capital every day.

Legislators Veer Singh Dhingan from Seemapuri, Sahab Singh Chauhan from Ghonda, S.C.L. Gupta from Sangam Vihar and Sat Prakash Rana from Bijwasan took part in the meeting.

They extended their support to child rights’ issues and said they would take up the matter in the legislative assembly.